The Ben and Emil Show - BAES 113: Hiring A Fake Man to Run Your Company

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

This week we have Penelope Gazin and Kate Giambra from Fashion Brand Company! Their story is wild and inspirational. The clothes are good too. If you want to check out the special 9/11 collection, head here: https://www.fashionbrandcompany.com/collections/baes pw: benandemil Ben's new movies and tv podcast with Dillon is OUT NOW! GO WATCH the first episode on WEAPONS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POTRcU5K8UE **CHECK OUT EMIL'S LIVESTREAMS HERE: https://www.youtube.com/emilderosa Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it! And please leave us a comment! It helps us! That's Cringe of Cody Ko: https://youtu.be/dTbEk0pVh2w Our AUSTIN VIDEO IS OUT! https://youtu.be/yGSs56bFzRU Sign up to watch and support the show at https://benandemilshow.com ***LINK TO OUR DISCORD: https://discord.gg/CjujBt8g ***Subscribe to Emil's Substack: https://substack.com/@emilderosa ***Trade with Ben at https://tradertreehouse.com Our episode with *Kyla Scanlon*: https://youtu.be/cIHWkY35cuc Big Tech is out of ideas (ft. ED ZITRON): https://youtu.be/zBvVGHZBpMw Arguing with a millionaire (ft. Chris Camillo): https://youtu.be/1ZUWTkWV_MM We bought suits HERE: https://youtu.be/_cM1XqA9n2U __ CASH APP: Download Cash App today: https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/zd0taway #cashapppod GROUND NEWS: Go to https://ground.news/baes for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe for 40% off unlimited access to worldwide coverage through our link. __ Follow us on instagram! @ benandemilshow @ bencahn @ emilderosa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, he looks like, it looks like someone else has logged in. Did you just delete the website? It's him. It's weasel. Weasel. Okay, this guy is obviously a little out of his mind. And he was also in control of your entire back end. That's when kind of the chaos started.

Weasel! Saying, well, Kate thinks like maybe you should be cut out or something. And then he would come to me and be like, well, Penelope said you're stupid. What? He took a baseball bat and started bat. mashing in Penelope's skull. What? I remember being like, what the fuck?

I was asleep and I like wake up and Kate's just screaming like, don't fuck with me. I was just like, I was like, Weasel, no. Weasel. But basically saying we owed him a million dollars. A million dollars? I was like, sue us.

Go ahead. Yeah, bitch. Go ahead, Weasel. Make my day. So. Wouldn't it be cool if we had Weasel behind here and we brought him out for it. All right, let's bring him out Weasel. I'm working out time with Ben and Emile.

Hey, everybody, welcome back. Welcome to... Welcome to another episode of Ben and Emil on Talking to Women. Yeah, we're talking to a couple of women today. They are... Oh, God. They're women who own a business. We thought it would be...

pertinent to have them on and talk all about how the business started because it's very successful and how they've navigated tariffs and just got a great story and they're good friends of us and the show. So please welcome Penelope and Kate. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you for having us. And Kate, you were you were going to describe to your audience and your customers. I've never seen the show or listened. Thank you. You were worried that we're not worried, maybe correct, that we're part of the manosphere. Yeah.

I don't know what the manosphere is. Welcome to the manosphere. Okay, thank you. It's a sphere where men go, it's an interdimensional prison. It's where men commune and talk about stuff that, you know, society doesn't let them talk about.

Yeah. Okay. We say slurs and yeah, definitely. But Kate knows what the show is. Yeah, so I'm an avid audio listener of the show. I don't watch them. and they basically, you know, Ben is always talking about the toilet and his bidet and being, like, sweetly racist.

And then Emil is always correcting him a little terrified and either talking about books or tennis. So that's the show. So that's the Ben and Neil show. I thought the theme was like crypto. I thought you guys were like crypto bros. We talk sometimes. No. No, the theme is what I just said.

The theme is what she said. The theme is largely business world, the politics mixed in finance stuff. And so, you know,

we got to touch on some crypto from time to time. But we mostly think crypto is a joke and we're stuck with it. Don't you have, don't you have some? I have some.

I have some Nolpe has some. What do you have? All doge. Are you kidding? Really? No. I do. You're not supposed to say.

You aren't. What you have? You shouldn't talk about it, I think. Oh, that's true. That's what I say. Politics, sex, and religion. Well, because you can get scammed easily if you're talking about it. Oh, yeah.

People will be like, oh. Too late for them. Can hack your shit? I got, what's the main thing? Bitcoin. I got Bitcoin. Ethereum and Doge. I do actually have Doge.

At one point, the Doge was really valuable. And I think it's, you know. It's still hanging in there, I think. I bought it for nothing. So at one point, I made $10,000 off of Doge if I had cashed out. But I had cashed out. but I didn't. Geez.

Well, so in case you didn't notice, we're not wearing our normal garb. They brought us, they brought us nice clothes because they said, you guys look like slops on the show? Yeah.

So can you describe to us what we're wearing? What am I wearing? You are wearing a shirt that has a kaleidoscope. I'm not a cladoscope. Okay. You are wearing a shirt

that has a... Mosaic. Mosaic. I'm in fashion. I don't know how to describe it. Okay. It's basically just got a bunch of pictures of a repeating painting all over it.

And it's a painting that we found in my grandpa's house after he died. And it was behind another, a very boring painting. And so it felt like this was like a secret painting. It's naked ladies. No, it's a naked man and a naked woman. Diving into a beautiful lake. And they're in like a cave.

And it feels like freedom. It feels like a purest sense of humanity. They're probably on mushrooms. That's the type of shit I'm trying to be on what you're, This? Yeah. Yeah, that's living. Am I the woman and you're the guy? I was picturing you out there, actually. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, no. Well, I'm the guy taking the picture. I'm the guy painting.

You're painting it. Yeah. And then what does Emil have on? He's got on a shirt that says mommy. Apropos. This is long, feminine hair. It's beautiful, isn't it? Gorgeous. Yeah. And, well, I guess we can save what you guys are wearing, right? Yeah. We'll save that for later. because it's a special treat for everybody.

And I got to say, I really like the fabric on this. That's a linen, cotton blend. It is, oh, my God. It breathes so well. It washes really well. Because everything I make, I'm not precious about my clothes. It has to be in, be able to thrown in the washer dryer. No dry cleaning.

And then it comes out perfect. Wow. So can you tell us how, so you both are part of, I didn't even say the name yet, fashion brand company. Yes. Fashion brand company. Which we're being fans of. Yeah.

Thanks. I mean, it's a, it's hugely popular. There's lots of fans. Majorly popular. Yeah. Most, we usually when we meet people, the women have heard of it, but the men have not. Because we have more. What's your demographic?

Like 90% women. 90% women. Yeah. We do have unisex clothes. Yeah. They're not big sellers, but make them anyways. This seems like a men's shirt. It is.

It is. Yeah. It is. Yeah. It is. It's a men's fit. But I think mostly women buy it. Yeah.

Well, maybe we'll get more men from your listeners. Yeah, guys, fashion brand company. Maybe I'll post a little pick of me on Instagram and my mommy shirt. Man, I really like it. I love it. So who makes the designs? Penelope, do you make the designs? Yes.

Yeah. And then why does this work? I have a pattern maker in China. Uh-huh. And... What part of China? Ondong. Got it.

Can you do an impression of what the person is. in China, what your contact in China sounds like? She sounds like this. What do you think she sounds like, Ben? My name is Kuala, and I'm the pattern maker for fashion brand company. Ben, what did you think she sounded like? I don't know. Whenever I tell a story and involve a person, I usually try to accurately do what they sound like, which can slip into what you might have described as sweetly racist in my pursuit

of accuracy for retelling of stories. So anyway, her name is koala. And so what happens? You send the designs off to her. Yeah, she's the lead pattern maker, but she also is the manager of the factory because we own our own factory in China now. Wow, you bought a factory? We pay the rent. Yeah, we pay the rent for everything.

And it has fashion brand company on it. And we, everyone has health care and vacation and returning leave. And we wanted to be able to control all the aspects. And we didn't want to do to be considered an ethical. clothing business. A lot of companies really tout it as like this amazing achievement, but mostly to say you're ethical just means you're not using slave labor.

You're not using child labor. And it's like under 60 hours a week. And so we kind of wanted to go above and beyond. Yeah. So none of our people are paper garment kind of like basically just all the things that are really standard. Yeah. No, it's okay. A lot of things that are really standard for the fashion industry, we've just actively been like, well, let's just not do that. And we can pay a little extra

to make sure everyone's cost of living is a bit better, but simultaneously, like... How many people are working over there? About 35 people right now. It shifts between 30 and 40, something. Wow. Before we get two, can we talk about the genesis of Fashion Brand Company,

how the company was starting and everything? Fashion Brain Company started. It was originally just me. Yes, it was. It was. It started. I was playing a show with my band, Slut Island. And I was really tired for the show,

and my bassist said, hey, here's an Adderall. And he gave me an Adderall and I'm not used to taking Adderall. And then I played the show and afterwards I said, I don't think that worked. I feel normal. And then for some reason, I felt like it kicked in like three hours later. And then I was like up all night long. I think this was like a weird Adderall. I don't know if it was actually Adderall.

No, it sounds about right. And then I was, it was like 3 a.m. And I just had the idea of like, I wonder if the website, fashionbrand company.com is taken. And it wasn't. And I bought it for 40 bucks, I think. And then I was. I was like, well, I guess I have to start a brand now.

Wow. Let that be a lesson to all young entrepreneurs, Adderall. Yeah, do drugs. I was going to say buy a URL. You're one Adderall away from founding a successful company. Well, and then what? So I, this wasn't like, totally random. That said she bought the domain.

I had had a career in animation and then also illustration and galleries as a painter. And so I started making merchandise that had my art on it, t-shirts and sweaters and pins. And I was able to supplement my lavish lifestyle. No, I was able to like live my life and take jobs I wanted and decline jobs I didn't want because I always had this extra income from art merchandise. So I had a following from that already. But then I kind of was like, I want to branch out. I want to make other stuff.

But I don't want it to be under my name necessarily because I have an art career as well. so I didn't want to blend the two. And so I was like, okay, I need to eventually create a separate brand name. And so, yeah. And when, because you both had created a website called WitchC, which I remember, Kate, you telling me about it when you launched it. Which C? Witch C?

Like, which C? Oh, which C? It's not a good name. Yeah. We know that. We know that. Yeah. Well, I just didn't know if it was which C or like which I'm swimming in the sea.

Yeah. But it's which C. Yeah, that's why. That's why. And is that still exist? No. The URL does. Oh, really?

Yeah, we have it still. What was going on on which C? Well, it was kind of... And this was pre-fashioned brand. Right. And that I feel like kind of got us, like, used to running a business. Yeah. Because we had to learn everything in real time with that, like, all taxes and all that stuff.

Well, I learned it. Yeah, I don't do any of that stuff. And so, yeah. So we started. started that and it was because a lot of artists, including Penelope, were getting banned from Etsy, from selling. And that was... Or what? They shut my whole shop down for a week, which, as someone who relied on that income to, like, pay rent was, like, traumatizing for me. But it was over one item and they would not tell me which item until eventually, like, I sent them in a really angry email being like, tell me which item. I put sensors and went through every item. And it was apparently I was selling a charcoal figure drawing of a nude woman laying on her side. And you could see. see a hint of pubic hair. And it was literally like three charcoal strokes of just pubic hair.

And that was the issue. And I couldn't wrap my mind around. Does that mean that someone reported it? Probably. Or, yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah.

So that happened. And we found out that was happening to a lot of other artists that we knew. So we were like, well, why don't we make something where everyone can sell that's not Etsy and see where that goes? And so we just kind of figured out how to make a website. and a marketplace and everything. It was in 2015, so there wasn't really as easy of, like, website building and plug-in-play stuff like there is now. It was a lot of work for us. And also, we just didn't know what we were doing.

So that's why it took us a bit longer to figure everything out. We invested all of our savings. Yeah. We didn't have any investors or parents who funded this. I know. So we got the site up and running. And from that, we built out this, you know, probably we had like 500 artists selling on there at one point. And then just all images of pubic hair.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll just, well, we just were, the whole concept was we won't censor anything. Yeah. And it can be like a sensor free marketplace, which. But you had to be screened by us. Yeah. So it was only artists we like.

Yeah. So it wasn't people that. Oh, so it was curated. Yeah. So, yeah, we did that. And then within a year of us launching, yeah, that was about a year later, we then had a big news story come out about us, which kind of also, like, it made us explode and everything. And so once we were in the middle of that, do you want to hear this story or? No, okay.

Okay. No, kidding. Absolutely, because I'm familiar with it, but you had teased that there's a prolonged version. Hey man can you pay me back for that sandwich? No, I'll get you next time. I'll just get you the next time. I know, but you say that every time and then you never... Yeah, but...

I just feel like I always get stuck getting the sandwiches and you say, oh, I'll get you next time, but then you never do. Has this ever happened to you? Does this sound familiar? That's why you need cash app, okay? You need cash app. Because, you know, what? No more excuses, okay?

Pay up. I bought you that sandwich. Yeah, and this is a real-life interaction that this happened one time. And Emil had to convince me, and I said, what, am I going to have to download an app? It's going to take hours. And he said, no, it's so simple. All you got to do is download the app and get all set up and you're done. And that's it. And sure enough, that was the case. And I paid him and it was all settled up. And that's how it goes. So look, when it comes to your money, you deserve to feel safe from fraud and in control. And that's exactly what you can expect with cash app. When you get the cash app card,

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want all in one convenient little card so for a limited time only new cash app customers can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash for real just download cash app use our exclusive referral code bays 10 in your profile and send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account free money that's money that's cash app cash app cash app is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, member FDIC, instant discounts provided by Cash App, a block ink brand. Visit cash.com slash legal slash podcast for full disclosures. So yeah, there's the viral story that went so viral that they then, a week later,

we have to tell them the viral story. Did a front page article about why our story went so viral. They were like, it was on Fast Company. Fast Company, that's right. I remember. And the writer was like, we've never done this before. where we did a follow-up article about explaining why our original article did so well. So we were like, okay, great. Yeah. And but there were a lot of things we couldn't discuss in the original article because of legal reasons.

And so there's a whole second part of the story. We should tell them what the original story is. So basically what happened was, as I mentioned, we were having, you know, we were having a hard time kind of figuring out how to get all this set up. It wasn't as easy and user-friendly. And so we were dealing with a lot of people that were just being total assholes to us. and we ended up creating a fake guy to start liaising with people so they would stop being rude to us. Because you felt like part of the reason they were being condescending and dismissive and all of that,

even though it was your business that you were starting, your website. And we were paying them. And they would be like, listen girls and just stuff like that. And we were just like, what the fuck? Like, I'm paying you. Yeah, a lot of people like not finishing projects or just saying like they'll be like, they'll be like, yeah, I can do it. I can do it over-promising. And then we'd be like, you said you could do this. And they're like, God, you guys are so demanding. And they would just like then get on

us about how, like, emotional we were being about asking for work to get done. There was one particular guy that inspired this. Yes. And he like flipped out on us. And we both were like, oh, this is upsetting. Just to clarify, this is, these are employees. This is what we were building. Contractors. Random people that we were getting to. Coters and designers for the witchy website. Right, right. Was it all. Also people who were uploading stuff to which C? No, no, no. But they were all cool, man.

They were all artist types. Mainly people you were asking to do work for you. Right. But we were hiring. We were hiring people and then that was happening. And so we created this character and it was just night and day. Who was the character? Did you have a name?

Yes, he did. His name was Keith Mann. Apropos. Yes. And so we had Keith kind of working with everyone. M-A-N? Yeah. And everyone loved him. He was the best guy. We came up with a whole backstory for him. He had a wife and kids. So if he was delayed, it was because he was, you know, taking his kids to Little League or something. Wow, this is beautiful. And Kate would always, I mean, there would be the three of us on the emails. And, you know, they'd always just be like buddy, buddy. Like, can't wait to kick back with a beer. I'm just like, we're doing a caricature of a middle-aged family man CEO. But it worked. It worked so well.

And these guys were like, man, I like this guy. And it was great because it also gave Penelope and I a bit of a way to blow off steam. And I think this has been just like a theme for every business we've done is just we're like, okay, this is hard. But how can we kind of make each other laugh a little bit? Or like, how can we like joke around a little bit and add some lightness to this? Yeah. This is psycho. So I can't believe.

I mean, that's just so crazy. It's like when people, there's the classic stories of like, I don't know, people applying. to jobs as with maybe a more unusual name or something like that. And then they are like, fuck it. I'm applying as like Andrew Johnson. And then all of a sudden people are like, come in for an interview. That's someone I would want to hire. Right. No. It's very. Yeah. And that's the thing too is that I think that it was. So when we came out, we had our business already firmly established and then Trump got elected. And so I think, I think that also gave us like a bit of a bump for like a lot of art and stuff revolving around that and people wanting to be more

supportive of independent artists. And then when this happened, it was right before me too came out. It was like maybe like two weeks before me too. So I don't want to say like we are the reason you started. No, you too. You did. Me too happened. Well, rather Keith did. Yes. We got to give credit to the man who actually did it. Also, you didn't. It was Keith. Yeah. To be fair. Truly. It was Keith. You can't control who watches things. Harvey Weinstein does watch our show from jail, so he's going, you might get some hate mail from him. Okay, but we've asked the jail,

we said, can you stop letting him watch it? And they're like, we can't control. He does have certain freedoms. He has an iPad and he loves the show. Wait, so, so you created Keith Man and then we did a press tour, basically. But what, so what happened? Like, you, how did you, how did you, how did you? Yeah, what

happened between, so from what I understand, there was one guy in particular who was being very dismissive, very rude. Well, we sold a movie deal based on this story. And that was the thing is everyone was like, wow, I can't believe you guys had to be a guy to have all the stuff happen. And we were like, oh, yeah, but there's so much more actually. Because suddenly deadlines are being met. Things are working, yeah.

So is that the crux? What we just heard, is that the crux of what was able to be seen? Are we allowed to use name? Because the person, the villain has a really good name. let's not use specific names because I don't want to be contacted. Okay. But so that what we just heard was basically the crux of the fast company article. Yes.

And that's what got us the like, wow, what is this? Like kind of moment. But then we sold a movie about our lives based on it. And then we got to tell the real story of what actually happened. Which we can tell you because the rights have been dropped or like they've ever knew the rights. They dropped the rights. I can't believe they didn't make that movie. I know they're going to make it with Brie Larson.

Wow, I know. It was crazy. They didn't make the movie because it writes itself. And I'm not saying that because it's... And it was for the time, too. I know. Yeah, it's very timely. I know.

Maybe we've hyped it up too much. No, no. Okay. So we did this whole thing where we created this guy, Keith, man. And one of the things that was happening is during that time period, Penelope was writing about that on Facebook and talking about it. And so we would constantly have our friends. seeing all these random updates about it.

And because of that, we had this guy who was a friend of a friend? Who was a friend of a friend. We got to name him. Give him a name. I want to tell you what his real name is because it's so funny. Okay. So we had this guy, let's call him Weasel. Yeah.

Was it Polly Shore? No. No. Yeah. Call him Weasel is the name. So, so, so weasel came in and. And he was, you know, he's like, well, I could help you guys out. I'm so sorry that you've been dealing with this. It sounds awful, you know. I have a lot of experience in this realm. I have a lot of experience

in this realm. I worked for this company called First Dibs and I have a lot of abilities to help with something like this and help you guys see it to the finish line. And we thought, oh, wow, great. Finally, a nice guy. He was helping us a bit. Never trust a guy named Weasel. Well, I think people that have nicknames are to be questioned. Oh, it was a nickname. Okay, sure. Yeah, no. A self-imposed nickname.

Oof. Not good. Yeah, not great. I feel like if you give yourself a nickname, it's like you got no friends. Danger, danger. You know. Also, shaved head and gold tooth. That he could take out.

That he did one time at day. What was his race? The red flag. Sounds like, hold on. What do you think the race is? Sounds like a white guy. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Spot on. The red flags on the sky are... Yeah, geez. Okay, guys, we've got to take a quick second to talk to you about ground news. If you're a long-time fan of this show, you know, we're doing our best to bring you up-to-date, accurate reporting. And what helps us do that is ground news. Yeah.

Have you ever read two articles about the same event and felt like they were from completely different planets like Venus or Mars? With today's fragmented media. landscape it's getting harder to know what's real what's biased and what's just noise so they make it and they help you uh you know view news with transparency okay they're identifying bias uh they're showing different sources they're showing how it's being framed differently from different sources which side of the political spectrum these uh journalists might fall on uh it's it's really it can be helpful for sussing out what's actually going on yeah they've got this thing called the blind spot feature, and it shows you the stories one side of the aisle isn't seeing. You'll see bias ratings,

factuality scores, and even ownership information. So, like, who funds the outlets reporting the story? Yeah, it's really great. It's an antidote to information overload, sensationalism, and algorithm-driven echo chambers. So go to ground.com. News slash bays for a better way to stay informed. Subscribe to get 40% off the Vantage Plan by scanning this QR code or using our link, Round. News slash bays. Anyways. So we started working with him and it actually was fine at first.

Like we were doing a lot of stuff. And it started to become apparent that there was maybe a real reason why he was helping us. Sex? Sex stuff. Yeah. No, I was not.

To get closer to Penelope and like date her and all of this stuff. We did not date. Yeah. Did not date. And so. I think when he kind of realized that wouldn't happen. But we also, we were naive and we let him come in as a third partner.

Let's be like a third partner. Like, let's all work together. This is going so great. Like, because he was actually helping us get everything done. So it wasn't fully, you know. And he had big plans and he was saying there was all these other bigger projects. Right. Right.

He's filing complaints with HR like, Penelope won't date me. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Um, and so when I think that realization finally sunk in for him, that's when kind of the chaos started. Yeah. And he started like acting kind of like an abusive boyfriend where he'd be like, you're not working hard enough. What are you doing? And I was like working these crazy hours. I was like, I got to prove that I'm valuable. And that at one point he was trying to cut me out of the. Yeah. And then he kept coming to me and being like, we got to cut her out. She's not working hard enough.

And then meanwhile, he would be going to her and. And, saying well Kate thinks like maybe you should be cut out or something or like blah blah blah and then he would come to me yeah and then he would come to me and be like well penelope said you're stupid so what and i was like you're you're dumb and that you smell well and here's the thing it was like we were we were getting it was so dizzying and so manipulative that we were both just getting so upset with each other and just not talking and all of this terrible like stuff was going on between us because we were just not like we were like we were getting gaslit yeah why do you not like me anymore what the hell and so um i remember i went over to penelope's house one day

and she's sitting at her desk she's been working like all night on this and i just remember being like why you call me an idiot like why would you say i'm stupid and she's like i didn't say you're stupid And she was like, I said it would be stupid. And then we both kind of like started crying. And like, we were like, it's him. We like, it's like, it's like, it's like, he's doing this to us. And then you started looking into what he was doing and realized that he kind of hadn't been doing anything. He hadn't been doing any work.

Classic weasel. Yeah. And so. And he was deflecting. And I think he maybe realized he overpromised also. And so he was trying to blame, put basically make it so we either folded or. one of us left and it could be like, oh, that was the reason why it didn't work out. Not because I failed in any capacity, but because these two idiot women couldn't commit and finish this.

So we had this realization and we were like, it's him. And so we decided to. Was that the morning that you then checked on the website? No. So we kind of had this realization. I was like, we should just kind of pull back and see if we can kind of get him to remove himself. Yeah, we didn't want to anger himself with yeah because we were terrified because we were like okay this guy is obviously a little out of his mind he was sending us these pretty crazy ranting emails like like like where i was like oh this is getting like stalker and he was also in control of your entire back end right exactly and so my back end unfortunately and so much too much too and so um and so what ended up happening was um we were just constantly kind of like pulling

things back, be like, no, no, no, we got it. We, we can take care of this and just kind of wanting to see if he would just bow out on his own after he's gleaming that we don't really enjoy working with him anymore. And so he came to L.A. I offered for him to stay at my place and I ended up staying at my boyfriend. I was covered in poison ivy and on the way to pick him up, Kate spills her hot coffee all over my poison ivy arms. And we're laughing. It was, it was, it was wild. And then we pick him up and then he's just like, ranting about plastic bags in California or plastic bags in California.

What the hell? Like, man, like sunshine. I'm from New York. And we're like, you're from Florida, dude. And we both remember he's like wearing a shirt where like, the armholes are so big you can see his nipples. And we both were like. Yeah, it was just like.

By the way, we had planned this trip months earlier and paid for it. So we were like, oh, this will be great. We can, we can launch the website in L.A., all of us together. Um, because Benelby lived in New York at one point in time, sorry, I skipped over that. I don't know. Are we good at telling stories? No, you're doing great. Okay. So anyways, he comes and we basically are just like, ew, to this guy. And so we just kind of leave him in my house for a couple days. I know. It's really weird. Don't talk to him or anything. And then, um, and then, like, we got back to my house. Where were you hiding? I was at mics. I was like, I was at my, uh, my husbands.

and um so remember you were like i don't want to go home and what's he doing in my what was didn't you do some weird stuff so we went back to my house at the end no yeah we found out that he was making oh so this we forgot we were going to mention this his hobby no yeah he's a magician cool red flags are piling up i know this one's not a red flag magic is cool you guys this was like 2016 peak magic i do have to say yeah everybody loves magic back there i do have to Magic is cool, but... I mean, my dad is a magician, so I think that's... Okay, then I maybe won't say what I was going to...

I don't... No, he said we should never trust magicians. Honestly, so there's a decent... Yeah, I could pull anything out of your ear. There's a decent amount of magicians here. We have... In this room? No, no, the...

Because of the magic castle, there's like a lot of magicians in L.A., and especially on the east side, and I feel like the amount of problematic stories I've heard about magicians. Whoa. I don't know. So go on. Okay, so he, we were supposed to, we did hang out one time when he first came in and we were all supposed to be working together, but then we found out he was actually just doing magic tricks on his computer.

We saw them posted to his Instagram and they were so funny. They were like literally like the kind with like music and he's just doing like cards. And then I'm like, Kate, that's in your house. I was just like. And we were just like, was he just adding music to this video of him doing a car trick? You guys hired Joe Bluth. I mean, sure, a little bit. I mean, sure, a little bit, but at least, like, I don't know.

I feel like I would prefer Joe Bluth. So then what happened? So. How did you finally, didn't we? Was this all pre-Kithman? No, this was after Keith. He used Keith to confuse us. He used Keith as a small screen.

He became Keith. Yeah. So. Sounds like you girls need a real Keith man. I don't know. The greatest trick he pulled was convincing if he was real. We were in our, like, we were running out of money. We had put a ton of money into building this website.

And we were like, oh my gosh, we've already, we don't have much to show for it. We've put in most of our savings. And this guy says he's so experienced us offering help us. But he's just doing magic tricks at Ket House. Yeah, we found this out. And so anyway, so we basically just leave him alone in my place. And then we go back, find like a bunch of 40s bottles, which was really sad, actually. And I was just like, he probably just hung out by himself at my place, which I was like, okay.

And then he kind of was just like, I've been thinking about it and I think I want to part ways with you guys. And we were just like, we were like, oh yeah, that's so awful. I'm so sorry. And we were like, yeah, let's just figure out how to like transition everything that you might have back to us. So because of the whole scenario, we're playing this very like emotional dance of like, how do we not show our cards and like piss this guy off because he has all this stuff. But how do we have? we get him to give us stuff back? Well, actually, I think as a magician, you've got to show him your card. Right, right, right. Sorry, sorry, sorry, go on. So, I was, it was, this was like a two-week period of him transitioning all the stuff to us. And I started having nightmares about it. And I just remember telling Penelope, I was like, I just know he's going to fuck us off her.

I think I remember this. I was like, I was like, I just, I'm having this sinking feeling. And I told my brother about it. He's like, it sounds like she has PTSD. And I was like, no, I'm like, I was like, I just, I know he's going to fuck us over. And so I was having nightmares about it. And then one night I had this nightmare where he was there and he took a baseball bat and started bashing in Penelope's skull. What? And I remember being like, what the fuck?

And then, so I woke up. Dang, why's he doing that? I was like, I was like, don't hit her. And I thought. Weasel. Weasel, no. Weasel. Stop with the violence.

So, and I remember she, in my dream, she's like, I can't see. Like, it was just like this like. Someone hit me with a bat. It was like, I remember being like, it's like a hidden visual. Like, I was like, it has to be a message. And so. I wake up, I'm like shaking from the dream. And I just was like, you know what? The last thing that he didn't give us yet was, he didn't confirm. He doesn't have access to the server with all

of the like code and everything. And I was just like, I'm just going to call them and let them know that we had an employee leave and we need to update the password. So it should be fine. So I call them and I'm on the phone call with them. It's just like the webmaster. Yeah, the people that are hosting everything. And I said, hey, I just wanted to call you. We had an employee. who was a little disgruntled and he may have the password to the account still. And I just wanted to make sure we updated that. So could we get that done like now? And he was like, yeah, sure, no problem. He's like, hang on one second. And then he's like, I'm going to put you on a brief hold. And then I'm on hold. And he's like, okay. And then he comes back on. And he's like,

um, sorry, did you just delete the website? And I said, uh, no, I'm not even on like my computer. phone with you. What are you talking about? And he's like, okay, let me... Do you put a man on the phone, please? Normally we deal with Keith man. And I was just like, no, I didn't do that. And then so he said, okay, he looks like, it looks like someone else has logged in during our conversation and has deleted the website. Download it also. And downloaded it as well. So I was like, okay, that's pretty wild. And I was like, what? I, I'm like shaking. I'm like, holy fuck, like one year of work that, like an entire year just

gone like that. I was like, life savings. And I was just like, this guy, he fucked us. He fucked us so bad. And then the guy's like, actually, you know what? I just locked out that user who was, who was on the website. Let me see what I can do. He's like, okay, just give me a second. Put me on hold for like another, it felt like forever. And then he gets back on. He's like, okay, so I have a backup of the website that he didn't delete. He deleted everything except one. backup from six hours ago. And he was like, so I can restore everything. And I was just like, holy shit. I was like, please do. And so I immediately was just like, oh my God. It was just like, that's why you don't fuck with us. Like I was just like screaming at like 8 a.m. in my apartment.

And I call Penelope. And I was asleep and I like wake up in case just screaming like, don't fuck with me. I was just like, I was like, he tried to fuck us. And I was. And I was like, He tried to find us. Hey, guys. And I was like, what? I was like, he tried to screw us over. And then I was like, I know exactly what he did. And I was just like, he downloaded the website.

He was going to be like, oh, your website's not working. Hey, hey, girls, I can probably help you. I bet I can figure out a way to get it back up and running. Or you could install the code. Yeah, he can reinstall everything because somebody has the code downloaded. A veritable. Now you see me. Now you don't.

Yes. And so, and so I. And so I was just like, oh my God. And then we were talking about it. And it was like, okay, what should we do? What should we do? And I remember I was telling Penelphia. I was like, let's do nothing.

Yeah, we never confronted him. Let's see what happens. And it just was, oh. Did he ever try to pull anything? Oh, he tried to come back. And it was just like, Weasel always comes back. It was so sweet because it was just like,

we had all of this, like, juicy information. And he didn't know that we knew, but he obviously was like, Okay, they obviously know something happened because they were able to put it all back up. And the website's still up. But why wouldn't they confront me about this rotten thing that I've done? So we found out he had done it from his company servers. Yeah.

So that would have implicated his job, which is a very high power. Not a high power. Yeah, but it would have been bad. You could have been fired for doing something like that. And then. For stealing at work? Yeah. Cybercrimes.

And then. You're convicted of cyber crimes, Weasel. What do you have to say? We did report him, but nothing ever happened. But still, it was good. We made a paper trail. Is he dead now? No, he moved to L.A.

Oh, so he's here. He did? He did move here. Wow. I don't even want to. He definitely lives in the arts district. This would be his neighbor. No, I think he lives in Venice.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Lots of magicians out in Venice somewhere. Yeah. Wow. So, wow, telling this story just like amps me up. I know. I'm like, adrenaline gets in me.

Yeah, it's just like, it's so. visceral. I want vengeance. He did try to sue us. He sent us a fake lawyer letter, which Kate zoomed in on like the lawyer's signature and saw it was like clearly photoshopped. And she was like, we don't need to respond to this. We never did. But basically saying we owed him a million dollars.

A million dollars? I was like, sue us. Go ahead. Yeah, bitch. I love when people threatened to sue. You're just like do it then. They never do. Go ahead, weasel. Make my day. Wouldn't it be cool if we had weasel behind here and we brought him out All right, let's bring it out Weasel. So, yeah, after all that happened, he kind of then was just like, hey, just want to check in and see if you guys need any more help from me or anything like that.

We're like, no, we got it. Thank you. And then, like, we just kind of kept icing him out. And that's when then he was just like, okay, well, I'm going to sue you. And actually, like, this is valuable company. And you guys got to pay me out. And we're just like, no. Weasel. And then basically we finished up, we wrapped up the website on our own.

By ourselves. And launched two months later. Yeah, yeah. Every month or ten months? Two. Two months. Two months later. Oh, my God.

We know a thing or two about that, getting threatened. Really? Yeah. We had a weasel around a little bit. Not quite a little bit. Go on. I mean, it's... One or two?

One. It was pretty much one. There was like... There was multiples, but... There was multiple weasels. There were, there was just a lot of, um, we were never quite, it was just a mess. And we weren't allowed to do certain things. and talk about things.

I mean, we technically were allowed to. It's just that they were so good at threatening us. We also got... What kind of threats would you guys get? We got lawsuits. For what? For breaking a contract that said we can't talk about anything. In the manosphere?

Have they ever heard of free speech? Honestly. Thank you. But instead of like how you guys did, we said, oh, you guys are going to sue us? Okay. Yeah, yeah. And I partly was like, this will be good for us. We'll amplify our, um, our fledgling new show.

Every lawsuit is good. We've had lawsuits threatened at us, like, which was from, can we. Yeah, we can talk about it. Yeah. Are you sure? Well, they, they basically just like, left us alone. A giant theater company. We made a dress that, um, had a monologue, had a monologue on it.

A famous Australian actress. Am I giving out too much? No, it's fine. And so we. It's Ben Mendelso. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The famous Australian actress. Yeah. I love him. And it wasn't just a cease and desist. It was, um, give us all of your profits that you've made from this.

They said, yeah, give us all the money you made from this. And destroy your remaining stock and send us proof of the shredded dresses. Yeah. And then we were like, okay, actually instead of destroying clothing,

can we donate to, donate to a women's shelter and in lieu of, they said no. We were like, it's the holidays. In lieu of us giving you guys the money, can we donate it to the LA women's shelter and give them the clothes? Um,

and they said, well actually they just stopped responding so I think that was their maybe that person got fired or died I don't know but it definitely was they came in very aggressive and then just forgot about and then our lawyer was just like I think it's a great idea that you guys are trying to donate to the women's what did you end up doing with all that stock can't say they do they send those pretty willy-nilly I remember back in the days of before streaming really took off and everyone was torrenting everything I remember with

Game of Thrones. It was like, so many friends had gotten just cease and desist letters, like, stop downloading Game of Thrones. I got that for the Sims. Yeah, okay. But they were saying, our lawyer was like, talk to their lawyer and was like, oh, they're really serious about it. If you don't pay them, they could sue you for millions of dollars. And he was really, I don't know, he was making, I kept kind of be thinking it was not a big deal. And our lawyer was like, no, you have to take this really seriously. Well, they were, they were. They were, they were. No, he was right, though. They kept coming back at us. I'd be like, I need all of your statements from all of your financials on this.

Like, it was like, it was way more than just like a, hey, knock it off. It was like, give us everything. Yeah, or we will take everything from you. Yeah. You guys are just dodging lawsuits. They love it. Yeah, I still, I'm, I don't have any bitterness about the hour debacle, but I definitely am upset that we weren't allowed to promote our new, um, because we had left this network and then we're out on our own very quickly. Within like a week, it was just, oh, crap we got to scramble by gear we had no we had never done

anything on our own like this I mean are there repercussions if you guys candidly talk about this now honestly they're probably not paying attention anymore but they've got their own issues yeah the first honestly who's watching this nobody nobody is watching the girls are

but they um that's yeah damn but we we weren't allowed to tell our existing audience that we were done Well, that we were moving on to another thing. They didn't let us explicitly say, and I understand why.

It's because they were afraid that they were going to lose, that that audience was going to permanently leave them and follow us, which is like, I get that concern, but it's not going to happen. So. We'll have good product, and then you won't have to worry about it. Sure. But so all they let us say was like, hey, follow us on social media. It was very strange.

We basically just had to do this last episode where we were like, um, this is the last one. and we'll see you out there. Follow us on Instagram for what comes next. We'll see you out there. But then there was one, because the final two episodes, they let us say that.

And on one of them, I was very dripping with sarcasm. I was like, hey, not really allowed to say what's going to happen, but follow us on Instagram, and I'm like,

winking for the next thing, and they just cut that out because they were like, all right, fine, you want to play that way? Fuck you. And I was just, ugh.

There's weasels all over the place. Yeah, but so what ended up happening and what bit us, is we still, every so often, we'll get people DMing or leaving comments saying, I thought you guys just hung it up. I had no idea that you even started a new show.

And it's like, they were effective in their silencing. You should have been more aggressive in your marketing and promised and said, check us out on Instagram. There's a nude photo of me. And you should have had a almost nude photo of your bodies oiled up. And inches away from kissing

to get attention and to get eyes on the fact that you were starting up. we're not good at marketing this is yeah yeah that's we were bad at they did kiss you did we did but on that previous show yeah but it was not that great of a kiss we're not good at marketing it was yeah you're right well for him it looks like you guys have never kissed before the way you guys kissed that was the first time i did it i liked it yeah it was wet after that i was like that's what we're doing it was full on he was grabbing my face and i my lips were pursed and he was like licking it at my mouth and stuff.

It was cute. Is that how it's supposed to go? Yeah. Yeah. Typically. So you do know a thing or two about marketing because fashion brand, out of which she was born fashion brand. Well, we had worked together on which see.

And then she just said fashion brand was from her Adderall brain. Right. Yes. So. Which she was still going. I guess went to like 2018. It was kind of just like easy transition to working and to working together basically. because it was just like, well, you don't know how to do any of this tax or like permitting or any of this stuff.

And I do. So I'll just keep doing it, but in a different capacity. Yeah. So the first couple of years, I just was doing everything, like the packaging, shipping, marketing, email, socials, whatever. And then it had gotten pretty big to the point where I was still doing everything. And I was like pregnant and still packing the orders and like almost falling off of a thing. How did you grow up? Was it like online marketing stuff you were doing? Yeah. It was just it was I sort of instantly had a little bit of an instant audience.

Oh sure. You had stuff from your heart. But it just built pretty subtly and quickly. Just like organic marketing of people tagging themselves in a weird dress. Our stuff is really eye-catching. So it's like kind of markets itself in a lot of ways. Yeah. Is you and I don't know if you still do market it this way as clothing for lizards. yeah we kind of that was oh yeah that was like my initial thing was i like made all these tiny versions of the clothes and i started this i kept doing these posts like i don't know why everyone's so mad at me i'm we're extremely clear that the photos are on human models but what we send is actually a lizard side version of the clothes please stop reporting us please stop

getting angry and then people would you know half the people get it half of people wouldn't and half people would be like this is theft what are you doing this is why are you confusing people. You should do marketing for us. This is great. Also, it was during that time where, like, you know how now every time you look at something online, you're like, is this real? At that time, we were, like, no one was asking that question because no, you invented it. No. I mean, yes, sure. Yeah, you did. I'm not just going to get it to you. So I think that also really helped is just like people that, I think it just helped that people were like, no, she's joking. No, she's not joking. Yeah. No one arguing.

about stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, all of our marketing is just usually successful if we know everyone's like arguing about it or writing out. That does seem like a successful thing. I mean, it's funny, you know, you brought up me too and like people decry cancel culture or whatever, but I'm like, is there one person who's been, everyone who's like canceled that just their career is now better than ever?

I know I have a couple who never came back. Yeah. There's one guy. Like Kevin Spacey. Well, no. Well, he's smaller time. get a role recently? Did he?

I feel like he's in something. He got a role as a groper. Maybe I'm just thinking, you know what I mean, though? Like, comedians will be like... Most people, yeah. I feel like they say... What they really mean is that people are like a little annoyed at me online, and they go,

I'm being canceled, but then that leads to them being kind of bigger than ever, yeah. There was one guy who was... Bums me out. This guy from the UCB theater, I forgot his name, and he got me to in around that time. No, I don't think that was his name.

But. I don't know. Just showed in kale. But he fully packed up. The people that know who I'm talking. He packed up, moved to the Midwest, and became a mailman. That's awesome. Gone.

That's what they call. Goin Postal. Wow, that's the new going postal. Honestly, sounds like a really wonderful job. Just like walking around. Walking around, getting those quads and butt up. I know. Sort and mail.

I need help in that area. Flat ass. No, I'm building up. But anyway, I think it's a good, I think it's a good tactic employing. You're getting people talking. Yeah, I think it's, I think that's the thing is that when we've done it, it's definitely, we know it, like, creates a bit of a buzz. But it's also just kind of like a joke and, like, funny for us. We're not really trying to, like, actually.

We're not thinking about it from this, like, marketing standpoint of, like, all right, how can we create, like. but like yeah how can what's going to be the most viral take that like it is just also it's just us spitballing and making each other laugh and because you've done a couple things that did get people talking but i mean your pieces themselves i remember my favorite is the sex house sweater yeah everybody loves the sex house sweater you've got the um nipple sweater are those still those seem like um evergreen items i kind of phased demi retired yeah they could come back but not I get kind of sick of my own stuff and so I'm really always trying to keep it fresh.

I don't want to stay in one place. The brand has evolved so much since I started it. Like the quality has gotten better. I know what I'm doing more in terms of... This shirt feels incredible. Yeah, I really... I fucking love this shirt. Yeah, I'm obsessed with...

I'm going on vacation a little bit. Can I have this? No, yeah, you can have it, yeah. And so let's talk about some of the things that pissed people off. Because I know, Penelope, I always saw you selling like a fucking... Was it a chair for like $10,000? Oh, yeah. Well, I had a $10 million chair. And it just was originally a chair that said, it was 800. It became $8 million. Yeah, 800. I don't know. Yeah, 800. It was a chair that I had painted and I posted it and I said, oh, this chair is $800.

And I got a couple comments from dudes being like, why would you charge $800? I could paint this. And it was whatever. It was a chair that with a face that said, please sit on me or something like that. And so every time somebody would leave a negative comment, I'd say, oh, it's actually. sorry, I made a mistake, it's $8,000. And then I would just keep upping it until eventually it became like $8 million. And it just became like a thing. I don't, there were just so many, so much attention and comments. And then eventually like a gallery was like, oh, the viral chair.

We have to show the, you know. And then it like went a little viral on Reddit because somebody thought it was real. It was like an accident. Like they thought it was like a chair painted for a child. And like, they thought it was like accidentally perverted. but I obviously do what I was doing. I feel like you guys do the internet right where like if someone's pissing you off, you just go like, okay, fine, fuck it.

It's 10 times as expensive. I think we struggle with like we get negative comments and we're like, why do they hate us? Yeah, we're going to change now. We should change who we are. Well, you can't please any. No, you can't. So just be yourself and let people chirp and say, you know what, fuck off. And getting too defensive is almost admitting.

I know. It kind of, it, like, emboldens them. And they're like, oh, my God, I'm bothering them. This is great. I have a voice. Yeah, yeah, don't talk to. Wait, so what were some of these things in this email that you, these emails that you sent are some of the hate things or the promos?

Because you said that there was one promo where you accidentally made everything. No, everything's expensive. We did a promo on our site called Expensive Mode. So it's for people that are poor that want to feel rich. Yeah. And you literally push a button on the corner of the website and it adds zeros to every price. Yeah. So like.

But then if you actually go to checkout, it's not. It takes it off. Yeah. We wouldn't, we wouldn't charge people. Originally, that's what I wanted to do. But we were like, we probably had so many, like, charge. But people were mad, right? They were like, how dare you?

People just didn't. But even though it wouldn't charge people? Yeah. And it also said, oh, since you're so rich, why don't you donate to either of these charities. Yeah. It was actually a promotion for charities, but indirectly. And then we're also making a comment. and capitalism.

Yeah, and the site would just be like, wow, you're so rich. You could buy anything. Just like... You want to donate $10 to these two? Yeah, it's just like the site would be like really like gassing you up for being like rich, which was really fun. It's still on the website. Yeah, it's still there.

Expensive mode still there. The problem was is that we set it. So the site was automatically on expensive mode when we first launched it, which we did on purpose, but because we wanted everyone to see it. And so everyone was really upset that we just upped our prices. But the thing is, is that right now, we live in a society where, like, people paying, like, $1,000 for a t-shirt isn't unheard of at this point, which is, like, which is upsetting. Okay, you can go up at the very top.

Yeah, there's a little toggle up there to the right. Oh, yeah, expensive mode. So for the audio listener, this is the fashion brand, fashion brand company.com website and everything suddenly went from like $100 to like $800. You can see it says, like, wow, you're rich, like at the top. Whoa Interesting I love the Yeah I love the logo

With the Because part of your logo Is the clip art Of the guy scratching his head Yeah It's just like Microsoft clip art I guess Yeah

And you did another one Involving Jeff Bezos That people didn't appreciate Right You had me come in And pretend to be Jeff No we got the real Jeff Oh yeah no I'm sorry

Yeah Sorry you got the real Jeff Bezos It's a really nice Nice work Yeah Did a man do this? This looks like guy work if I've ever seen it.

I'm obsessed with the Keith Man story. Yeah, me too. Well, we sold, we sold the, what we didn't mention was like, so we did sell the movie and we would tell people that story about it. And they were like, oh, perfect. It, like, writes itself. Yeah. The guy who created two and a half men was like, let's make this a sitcom.

And he was fighting for it. There was like a bidding war over our story. Yeah. And then they were just like, actually this stinks and we don't want to do it anymore. Well, we just, well, no, we had all these people attached. to it and then we got a script and I remember being like, what the fucking? It's like I mean, not gonna name. So who owns it

now? Nobody. So if anyone wants to buy it, the story's. Wait, but you do, does it revert back to you? It does. We got a really, because there was a bidding where we got a great deal. Yeah. And I use that initial money to start fashion brand company. Yes, that was there's a lot of

Reddit threads about how I must have family money or a trust fund because people like, how did she even start fashion brand company? Fuck you, everybody. Adderall and Keithman and a movie deal. You know, a random movie deal. But also I keep me like, would you, do you ask male business owners? Oh, like, you must have a trust fund.

How could you have started this business by yourself? People ask us all the time. And I say, yeah. Yeah, you know how much a microphone cost? You do have a trust fund face. Wow. Shit. And so these shirts are, this is actually a treat for our audience only, right?

Yes. I designed this collection a long time ago, maybe a year ago. And then I chicken down. out on releasing it because we did a 9-11. No, no, we made it just for the show. No, we didn't. It's okay. No, keep going.

I can't lie. Yeah, no, you can't lie. We did a 9-11 promo on 9-11 that said you can either take 9% off or 11% off your order today. And you can show the email and people have really hated it and people responded so badly to it. I thought, I cannot release this collection. So we've just had this.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I like that you're willing to. just take big swings. Yeah. Well, this is also just like a really good commentary. Oh, for the audio listener, it's images of the Twin Towers and today only choose a 9% discount with code, 9-11 or an 11% discount code. Jesus.

And then we had a website too, and the text is like crashing into the towers like a plane. Oh, my God. This is so funny. Okay, so the clothes. So then, yeah, I really chickened out on this three-piece collection. I actually had this whole narrative that this collection was actually designed by BB. Do you guys remember BB? It was like a nice, small brand.

Yeah, BB. Yeah, and I had this whole narrative that, like, in 2000, they were going to release this collection of this I Love New York collection that had silhouettes of different skylines in New York City. Uh-huh. And then, and that there even was like a print. ad and we've created like this fake BB ad I wish we brought it but we have anyways um and we even like got a magazine we're going to Photoshop the ad in a vintage magazine and but then they had to obviously cut the three twin tower pieces from the collection and hold the collection and then we found and that we found the dead stock in a storage facility and we did a photo shoot and we bought all

these vintage BB tags that really make it look vintage wow and that I bought the dead stock and was selling it now to the customers. And you abandon that because of how bad the 9-11 discount went over. Yeah. I also just like, I don't know. I was just like really sensitive and I was like, I can't handle people on the internet. I get that. Calling me a bad person right now. But so now exclusive for our audience, you can buy these. Are they unisex? This is a dress. I mean, so you've got the dress on. And Kate's got the one, the tank that says, eyes off my twin towers.

Which is pretty great. They are stunning. And for the low price of $9,000, $9,000. QVC viewers can call in right now. There's a phone number on your screen. So should we just put a link in the description? Yeah, we'll give you guys a special link. Only Ben and Emile Show listeners will be able to purchase this collection.

Wow. I love it. So I'm still scared as going to get out on the FBC Reddit and we're going to lose a lot of customers. It's okay. I always say that every six months I try to do Well I coerced you I coerced

I coerced it's another man We gas let you into doing this You guys love the Twin Towers So we just figured it was like I know you have all this stuff We'll take all the They were my favorite buildings Really?

Before the tragedy And my favorite after Oh my God No I went to the top of them in 1998 And I was I just my little brain it's just like, well, there's two of them?

They're so big. And they're cool looking. Yeah. So. What a shame. I mean, we'll take all the... We'll take all the... We'll take all the heat.

That's it. Yeah, we're not talking about 9-11. Yeah, they're not burning. There's no plane. One could say it's an ode. Yes. And this is like the new, don't tread on me.

Yes. Yeah. So we're happy to take all the heat. Do you think it was an inside job? I think that there was a lot of very deliberate negligence. negligence and ignorance at the highest levels of the government in multiple, yeah, but I don't think that the government had a hand in coordinating it. I think it was just the CIA did not cooperate and work with the FBI and everybody just kind of dropped the ball.

It could have been preventable. It could have been prevented is what I'm getting at. Yeah, big time. One of the Reddit rumors about me is that I'm a 9-11 denier, which I think somebody just got confused because I'm very, I've said like I think the government was involved in 9-11 and somebody telephoned that and reiterated it on the internet. And somebody wrote, do you mean she thinks 9-11 never happened? And they responded, yes. And so there's that rumor going around that I just think it never happened. People love really making up lore about who you are, I think. Like, there's a weird, sometimes there is a little bit of like a parisocial element to Penelope. And, you know, she's just a sweet, sweet girl. Thank you. Making ugly clothes.

Thank you so much. so wait there were there you were going to tell it what else was in those emails i want you you intentionally forwarded us these these emails that contained stuff well maybe we should talk about um well you have hate mail the one that's serious scroll down this what is this just images from cocoa that's a that's a quote from someone that was unhappy on reddit can can we do you want to talk about that do you guys have a subreddit yes is it uh those can be toxic is it ours is great Oh, yours is great. I'm just pretty sweet and supportive.

Yeah, we love our... Except for this quote. We love our Reddit. Well, it's okay. It's okay. They can be constructive and negative. We don't mind. Do you want to read this quote?

I can't read this. Yeah, I can't see that. This is one of my favorite quotes that I found so flattering. Go for it. We might have to make it even bigger. Wow. Do you want me to read it? Yeah, you guys read it.

Kate, you have LASIC, though, also. No, I know. I can read it. I'm saying she can't read it. She's like sort of blind. Hmm. I've accepted that while I enjoy the fit of FBC's clothing and a lot of the style slash cuts, I don't enjoy Penelope's sense of humor.

And a lot of the clothes are very tryhard, edge lord coded, and just not for me. Anyways, I just really enjoyed this because I was like, oh, this person actively dislikes me and they still like the clothes. Yeah. So I was like, that's a real testament to. And what are these screenshots that you've sent? Oh, that's just the subreddit. Yeah.

Got it. How many, how many subredders do you have? 5,000? I don't know. I think 5,000. I thought three. It looks like 5.7K there. Wow.

It's been growing lately. Wow, that's fun. That's a lot. There's been Reddit's about people complaining about how popular the Reddit is getting. Oh, because everybody wants something for themselves. How did you guys get so grounded with not letting this, the online hate bug you? You just don't care. You know what?

You guys might be a little different because they are probably attacking you guys personally. It's like us as a. So it really affected me initially and like people would. Yeah, there were a few times where it would be like people would like say some like pretty rough things. And I mean, especially being online like pre. It was 20, 2020. Being online during pre-COVID, it was definitely a point in time where people were like really excited to like got their voices be heard. Like got you to anybody or like be like, oh, you're actually bad. And especially I think being as a woman business owner, like there's always that desire to just really tackle you and take

you down, like, and just be like, rooting for you to fail. Yes, exactly. And so, um, I remember there were times where it was like really emotional, like, but it, you know, we just, I think we kind of had like talks about and we were just like, you just can't respond to everyone. Yeah. You just have to just respond and you want to defend yourself, but you just got to. And once you start like just not saying anything or not responding to it and just being like, you know, if someone wants to go off in the comments about what a terrible person we are or like why we're like toxic or whatever, it's like that's their prerogative. And then, you know, guess what? The next post, that person isn't there. It's just

kind of like, it's just things move on. Also having a customer service person and a social media person to like field all that stuff. Oh, and put a filter between. Because if you're doing that all yourself and you're just seeing these like negative comments after negative comments. Yeah. I mean, we do read them still, but it fits, if it's like, well, you do sometimes because it is sometimes people will note that I'll be like, my order never arrived and no one got back to me on. Oh, yeah, I always take those. So we do, we do pay attention to those types of things because we obviously don't want anyone

to be buying something and not getting their stuff or anything like that. So we respond to that stuff, but we never really deal with anyone being. I think that's the right move. I mean, it's, I think one of you said you can't please everyone and then you just kind of start doing backflips to try to appease everyone and then you just start making this thing for nobody and it's just like what did I do? I'm not happy. I think there was a period in like 2021, 2022 where I felt like the brand started to go away from me because I felt like I was accommodating all these different voices and then I have to constantly like recenter myself and be like, I don't even like what I'm designing anymore because I know I'm doing it for these customers who are. are insulting me and I need to stop doing that, though. Yeah. Because they're not, they're not, you're not, they're not in your social circle. Most of our customers are amazing. Yes. Oh, no.

We love our customers. They're awesome. It's just like they're, they're the best. But, you know, people that don't like us, it's like, people love to fight on the internet. There will always be people fighting on the internet about anything. So they're going to be there. Yeah. It's like, if you don't like it, don't, you know, don't buy the clothes. That's, that's the best thing you can do. And if you do, turn that thing on expensive mode and fill up that. that cart. Have, have tariffs affected you guys at all? I know I teased that at the top and I, I just wonder if it, if it has since you, um, have your, oh, wow, great. Okay. Wow, you're lucky. Yes and no. Um, I thought it was going to. I thought it was going to as well.

And I think one thing that we've learned from, uh, Donald Trump presidency is that he always says shit and then he doesn't actually like have the follow through usually or like something changes. It's like, things, things are spinning so much day to day that what was happening on Monday is going to be completely irrelevant by Wednesday. And I think we were seeing that so much that we were just like, well, let's wait and see. That being said, I was still looking up ways to, like, circumvent tariffs by like either setting up. No, just adjusting the law. Can we bleep out? No, no, I mean, I'm just looking into ways that might be more like.

economical like should we should we be developing product in Mexico or Canada like you know I was I was looking into ways of how to break the law you can bleep this out you can just go like no we are I mean we're always breaking the law I run every stop sign

those are suggestions yeah so that happened and I think that's one thing that we've noticed with this year is every time there is bad news like that or anything like that it causes a lot of people to start panic buying whether they're like nervous that they might not have access to things or they're just sad.

I bought like a lot of honey. A lot of olive oil and honey. Yes, I know. As an audio listener. It was Greek olive oil and honey. That's Greek panic. Yeah. And I was like, this stuff's going to get so expensive.

I filled up my cross track with so much Greek and honey. And now we're just holding. Greek and honey, you said? Greek oil and honey. We're just holding a lot of inventory down. on your desk. I know, I should. Honestly, the olive oil, we've been going, I mean, we go through a lot of olive oil in that house, but the honey, we're still got, we still got a good amount of well, honey lasts a long time. Yeah, we got a good amount of honey. Wow. Should we, um, because we're

probably needing to, let's tease the bonus episode, Ben and Emile Show.com. Oh, can I do the voice? Um, sure. You can see a picture of my boobs. All right. Sorry. And my face disfigured. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So we, we, um, I've known Kate for a very long time. And we're, we're going to show probably, I guess, the only old photo I have of us together. And also your recent fucked up face. I can't wait for me. I can't wait for me. I get a little squeamish about stuff. It's so good. Not that picture. What the hell? But that's just a tease. What the hell? That's you, when you, when you, when you, when I was in the bathroom, uh, this was south by Southwest. Okay. And then I see now in your in your, as we're wrapping this up, I can see now in your email,

you had a bunch of promos that you were going to share with us. Yeah. Maybe we just pulled a bunch of stuff because we were like we could we could pull things, but I mean like. Oh, there's me as Jeff Bezos. Let's let's look. We can wrap it up on. I know it's Jeff Bezos. Oh yeah. Sorry. Yeah. No, that's Jeff Bezos. Um, yeah. This was because you guys convinced everybody that, uh, we were selling the Amazon for like about. a month we were talking about like and we did in a full like campaign about it yeah and this is back before um or this is well this was 2023 there's no sound oh yeah we got to reset it this was like before deep fake was as easy bezos here with some exciting news for the new year amazon dot com is

thrilled to announce that we are acquiring fashion brand company that's right we've done everything from robotics to AI to revolutionizing the home e-commerce experience. And now we're getting into what really counts and what I've always been passionate about. Boutique fashion. As you know, everyone wears clothing from babies to grandma. Fashion Brand Company has always been an ambitious boutique fashion company, which is why I always loved them and admired them from afar. So this year, we're going to help fashion brand usher in a new era. And they're going to be the first fashion brand to put clothing on the moon. I think clothes are so cool. So that's all for now. Be sure to stay tuned because 2023 is going to be a banner year for amazon.com and fashion brand

company. I'm Jeff Bezos just saying I can't wait to see you get dressed. I can't wait to watch you get dressed. I can't wait to help you get dressed. That was great. Yeah, wow. How'd you get him? My ex-husband's ex-girlfriend ran into him and was like, wow, congrats on Penelope's Amazon sale and she thought it was real. Wow.

Beautiful. And she was like, wow, she must be rolling in it. And he had to be like, no, that was a joke. And we maybe were crystal balling that a little bit because now Jeff Bezos owns Vogue. And so he does love boutique fashion. Oh, and fashion brand company was recently in Vogue. Yeah, that's true too. Just some clothes.

I can't believe people really thought that you would say. I partly believe. it when you told me, because I think you gamed me at first, Kate. You were like, yeah, we're going to sell the Amazon or something. And I was like, whoa. Or they're going to start selling on Amazon. You're going to start selling the clothes on Amazon. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know. I just always am like, fucking with you a little bit. That's okay. Oh, and also, we'll, they're going to do our makeup in the bonus episode. So Ben and Emile Show.com. Yeah. So that'll be fun. We can make Ben really pale.

much to discuss thank you so much for coming on huge boobs huge boobs oh my gosh so tune in to see and thank you very much for joining us oh uh fashion brand company dot com check the link go get your lizard clothes yeah get your lizard clothes get your 9-11 clothes and yeah do you want to give a shout out to the kids no but i'll give a shout out to mike I'd like to give a shout out to Kate. Oh, thank you. Wow. Does that count?

Yeah. You're not supposed to shout out the person you're with. No, you can do that. You can do it. Because when she's listening later, she'll be like, oh. That was fun. All right. Bye, everybody.

Bye. Coming up on this week's episode of Ben and Emile show.com. So I was like, let me see how much I can open my eyes and how much I can smile. Were you in pain at this point? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was so uncomfortable. It's too close.

It's scaring me. Okay, so that was me. It was so scary. Maybe one of my kids. Were your kids scared? I just told them. I was like, I was like, Daddy beat the shit out of mommy. No.

No. No. No. This is a baby way rescue ponies. Say them collect her from her mom. Okay. What is this from? I don't know.

Some. Yeah. What's what? It's written in like, it's written from like a Jamaican. Did you turn? When them first rescue her, them try keep men away from them as she been still, they feared them. But gradually she'd be sex. Not horrible tin.

She be sex slave, not terrible. This cannot be BBC. Boyle. Yeah, it's BBC.com. Shut up. Oh, is it BBC like porn? No, it's pigeon. Pidgin.

What's Pidgin? What the fuck is this?